Gamerizon, Sardine Productions get transmedia Chop Chop Ninja deal

The Montreal-based companies will develop mobile, web and TV-based content with Teletoon Canada.

Chop Chop Ninja, Gamerizon Studios’ smash-hit mobile video game, is set to chop its way onto a TV screen near you.

The Montreal-based game maker, along with co-producer Sardine Productions, recently signed a development deal with Teletoon Canada for a transmedia series that will feature exclusive mobile, web and TV-based content.

Ghislain Cyr, president of Sardine Production, tells Playback Daily that the strong design and characters in the Chop Chop Ninja game were appealing building blocks for a series.

“We liked the Ninja theme and knew we could develop a cool series around it,” he adds.

The seriesfollows super-ninja Iro, who defends his town from evil overlords and their underlings while trying to win the coveted title of Chop Chop Ninja.

The partnership between Gamerizon and Sardine Productions, which began in 2011, marks the first time that Sardine has adapted a video game for TV.

Up to this point, the production company has focused on adapting books and producing original content, and Cyr says the Chop Chop Ninja game provided all the elements to develop a bigger, multi-platform project.

“It speaks to a lot of people. We saw the opportunity to create very dynamic content on the different platforms, using the strength of each platform to entertain and make it very rich in terms of content,” he says.

The details of the deal are still being worked out, but so far, Sardine is slated to produce 52 11-minute episodes. To speed up the series’ development, it will also make one-minute interstitial episodes.

Meanwhile, in addition to its upcoming Chop Chop Ninja Worldgame, Gamerizon will develop games and other content for Teletoon’s website and for mobile devices.

This approach, says Cyr, reflects the way people interact with media today.

“We’re reproducing what kids are doing every day,” he insists.

“They’re not just watching TV or going on the Internet, they’re doing pretty much everything at the same time,” he says.

Cyr also says he believes that creating transmedia entertainment is the way forward for Sardine Productions, which is about to release three board games based on its Manon series, and three mobile apps for its Leon series.

“What we’re doing is shaping a model that we’ll want to reproduce,” he says.